This week in pictures: Two for the price of one

The past two weeks have been filled with highs and lows, sickness and love, tears and play. I was so devastated by losing Katie last weekend that I couldn’t bring myself to put together my weekly post of photos, so here’s two week’s worth for the price of one.

Most of last weekend we were reeling from losing Katie, so we decided to bring the kids out on a family sledding afternoon to try to get away from the empty-feeling house for a while.

It was the first time I’d been able to put my new camera through its paces. After waiting months to buy it, I finally saved up enough of my photography income to invest in a full-frame camera, the Nikon D600. Ironically, in the days after I bought it we were so rocked by snow and sickness and then the loss of Katie, I really didn’t take more than three or four photos with it until the first part of this week. It’s a gorgeous camera, though, and I think we will be the best of friends.

It takes pretty good cat pictures, so I suppose I can make it work.

I’ve been twitching to try it out for portraits of someone other than the family, and my friend Steve needed a new avatar. Perfect!

I was carrying a basket full of fresh laundry upstairs when I came around the corner and saw the light bathing Lucas and literally dropped the basket where I stood so I could grab my camera. Not that I need much of an excuse to be distracted from folding laundry, but I think the light in this one is pretty delicious.

These are a couple from earlier last week. The big boys have been taking music lessons and were offered the opportunity to perform in the semi-annual recital. Tristan declined, but Simon played a lovely version of Ode to Joy for parents and grandparents in the church basement. These are the moments I’d dreamed of, way back when the idea of kids was just an abstract and not a noisy, chaotic technicolour experience.

Snow. Sigh. If it won’t go away, you might as well embrace it, right? Snowball fight!!!

These last photos are all about why I love Ottawa. I was off on an errand and came across a pair of gentlemen doing oil paintings on the Mackenzie King bridge over the Canal, and asked if I could take a photo. One smiled said yes, go ahead and take a few, and can I have a copy? I said sure, and gave him my card and snapped a few photographs.

Also on the bridge, he’d set up this little art installation (this is an Instagram photo.)

When I got home, I googled his name, and found his blog post about making these paintings and some photos from his perspective. His name is Patrick John Mills and he’s a local artist and gallery owner. How fun is that?

Even when winter is cold and dark and seemingly endless, there is colour, and beauty, and light. Sometimes you just have to go looking for it so it can find you.

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Welcome and thanks for stopping by!

Hi, I’m Danielle Donders, but my friends call me Dani, and the Internet calls me DaniGirl. I'm a Canadian photographer, blogger, government social media strategist and mom to three boys. Everything else you need to know - and a whole lot more! - is in the blog.

My least favourite of the Anne books so far. I could feel the boys' attention wandering as odd and quirky characters wandered in and out of the narrative. Any book with Anne Shirley in it is a wonderful story by default, though.